Progressive News Daily

By Alex Seitz-Wald
Think Progress.org

Hate radio host Rush Limbaugh has been one of health care reform’s most vociferous opponents, warning that “[h]uman beings will die earlier than normal” under the “freedom killing” and “life threatening” plan, and calling for it to be “aborted.” Yesterday, Limbaugh put his money where his mouth is, saying that if health care passes and all his fears are realized, he’ll leave the country:

CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? [...]

LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, doctors have opted out. And once they’ve opted, they can’t see anybody Medicare, Medicaid, or what will become the exchanges. They have to have a clientele of private patients that will pay them a retainer and it’ll be a very small practice. I don’t know if that’s been outlawed in the Senate bill. I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.

(more with sound)

**PS: Rush, don’t forget to take your “Viagra” so you can play with your little boy friends in Costa Rica, you freak! – JS

By Ruth Conniff
The Progressive

Monday night on the Ed Schultz Show former CIGNA V.P. and insurance-industry whistle blower Wendell Potter came out strongly for pulling together behind the imperfect health insurance reform legislation the President is trying to push through Congress.

Potter’s take is significant, because he understands the details of health insurance policy, and the kinds of loopholes industry lobbyists manage to write into law.

As the President goes on his barnstorming tour to rally support for health care reform, I had been wondering about Potter’s take on the current plan. Is it worth it, or is it, as Dennis Kucinich calls it, “a giveaway to the insurance industry”?

Back in September, I interviewed Potter when he came to Madison. He expressed worry that the health reform plan Obama was backing was turning out to be far less than it should be. “If he reverses himself on both the public option and the mandate requiring people to buy insurance, that will just be a gift to industry,” he said. (more)

By Richard A. Serrano
The Los Angeles Times

Using e-mail, YouTube videos, phony travel documents and a burning desire to kill “or die trying,” a middle-aged American woman from Pennsylvania helped recruit a network for suicide attacks and other terrorist strikes in Europe and Asia, according to a federal grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Colleen R. LaRose, who dubbed herself “Jihad Jane,” was so intent on waging jihad, authorities said, that she traveled to Sweden to kill an artist in a way that would frighten “the whole Kufar [nonbeliever] world.”

With blond hair and green eyes, the 46-year-old woman bragged that she could go anywhere undetected, allegedly boasting in one e-mail that it was “an honor & great pleasure to die or kill for” jihad.

“Only death will stop me here that I am so close to the target!” she boasted. (more)

BBC Online

US Vice-President Joe Biden has condemned Israel’s approval of 1,600 new homes for ultra-Orthodox Jews in East Jerusalem.

Mr Biden, in Israel as part of US attempts to kick-start the peace process, said it was “the kind of step that undermines the trust we need”.

Palestinian leaders also condemned the controversial move.

Israel insisted it was a procedural step with no connection to Mr Biden’s visit.

The international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory. Building on occupied land is illegal under international law, but Israel regards East Jerusalem – which it annexed in 1967 – as its territory. (more)

By Alex Seitz-Wald
Think Progress.org

The Census is a popular topic of right-wing conspiracy theories and Fox News host Glenn Beck spent a good portion of radio show today fear-mongering about it. Going through the form, he determined that the government doesn’t have the right to ask any of the questions — except for the first one asking how many people live in your home.

He took particular issue with a question asking for the respondent’s race. But after Beck’s co-host pointed out that the question has been part of the Census since the Founding Fathers’ time, Beck twisted the three-fifths law to claim that the Census is now breeding slavery:

BECK: Why were they asking the race question, you said when, in 1790? … Right, they want to know, do you count as three-fifths? Do you count at all? So, you have to know how many slaves did you have? People find that offensive today because the idea was, if we’re going to count, we want to know how many are here for services etc. etc. and slaves would get less. Well that’s not right. One. One. ‘I’m not three-fifths, I’m one. Whites are not worth than me.’ Now reverse it, why are they asking this question today?

CO-HOST: Because minorities are worth more than whites.

(more)

by Zachary Roth
TPM Muckraker

(click photo for larger size)

A coalition of Teabagger groups will gather in a Chinese restaurant on Capitol Hill tonight to announce plans for one final Washington showdown over health-care reform.

The event, dubbed “Take the Town Halls to Washington,” is designed to bring Teabagger activists to Capitol Hill during the month of March, in order to target 50 House Democrats who have not yet announced their vote on health-care reform, according to a press release. It’s being put together by Mark Skoda, a prime organizer of last month’s controversial National Teabagger Convention, where Sarah Palin was the keynote speaker, and by Michael Patrick Leahy, a Teabagger leader and GOP consultant.

Asked how many Teabaggers he expected to show up, Leahy told TPMmuckraker:

“I am very confident that the number of activists is going to increase dramatically each day as we approach the White House deadline of March 18 for the vote.”

(more)

by David Weigel
The Washington Independent

One of the things Charles “Cully” Stimson remembers about the interview that cost him his job is just how run down he was when it happened. His January 11, 2007 sit-down with Federal News Radio, said Stimson, was one of 40 interviews he’d given that week. That’s one of the reasons the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs stumbled so badly when talking about a Freedom of Information Act request that would have revealed the names of attorneys who were defending prisoners detained at Gitmo.

“When corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001,” said Stimson to Fed News, “those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms, and I think that is going to have major play in the next few weeks.”

The comment, coming only days after Democrats took charge of both houses of Congress, blew up in Stimson’s face. Within three weeks, he had resigned. He apologized to the lawyers that he “allegedly was slamming.” He would never have done such a thing. Cut to last week, when he saw an ad by Keep America Safe, a national security think tank founded by Liz  “Daddy’s Puppet” Cheney and Bill Kristol, that demanded the names of attorneys who’d defended Gitmo detainees — what it called “the Al Qaeda Seven” — and gone on to work for the Department of Justice. (more)

Chicago Tribune

Ralph Remakel received a Citibank letter postmarked Feb. 16 that notified him of a recent Citibank error. It turns out he wasn’t the only one.

In late January, Citibank mailed year-end tax statements to 600,000 Citi customers via the U.S. Postal Service that included the customers’ Social Security numbers … on the outside of the envelope.

Citi called the mistake a “processing error.”

Although the nine-digit numbers were not identified as Social Security numbers (they were printed at the lower edge of the envelope with other numbers and letters and resembled a mail routing number), Citi still reacted to the mistake. EVP and Director of Citibank Client Services Norman White sent customer notification letters to every affected Citi customer during the week of Feb. 15, apologizing for the error.(more)

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
AP

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Tuesday he’ll bring in high-tech bounty hunters to help root out health care fraud, grabbing a populist idea with bipartisan backing in his final push to overhaul the system.

The White House announcement came as Obama prepared to travel to Missouri on Wednesday, taking his closing argument to the nation’s heartland. The trip will be his second public appearance this week to rally support and fire up nervous Democrats.

The White House released details of the anti-fraud plan hours after a fresh challenge to the administration from major business groups that unveiled a multimillion-dollar ad campaign arguing that under Obama’s plan “health care costs will go even higher, making a bad economy worse.”

The ad buy, costing between $4 million and $10 million, will start Wednesday on national cable TV outlets. Later in the week, the campaign shifts to 17 states home to moderate and conservative Democrats. Their votes are critical to Obama’s endgame for passing legislation to expand coverage to millions who now lack it and revamp the health insurance system. (more)

by Michele Simon
Alternet.org

This is really embarrassing. I attended the Yale School of Public Health back when it was still a separate department within the Yale School of Medicine. I just received my alumni newsletter, only to find out that Yale Medicine has teamed up with soft drink and snack food giant PepsiCo to create a “research laboratory” in Science Park, which is adjacent to Yale’s campus.

What will sort of alleged science will this Orwellian place produce? Why, the “development of healthier food and beverage products,” what else? But that’s not all. It seems that Yale’s price tag was a tad higher. To complete the sell-out, PepsciCo is also sponsoring a fellowship in Yale’s M.D.-Ph.D. Program. According to the company’s press release, “the endowment will specifically fund work that focuses on nutritional research, such as metabolic syndrome, diabetes and obesity.” Just great. Here’s how Dr. Robert Alpern, Dean and Ensign Professor at Yale School of Medicine justifies the deal:

PepsiCo’s commitment to improving health through proper nutrition is of great importance to the well-being of people in this country and throughout the world. We are delighted that they are expanding their research in this area and that they have chosen Yale as a partner for this endeavor. Extending this partnership to the M.D.-Ph.D. Program represents a visionary investment in one of the finest researcher training programs in the world and thus to the future of science.

(more)

Culled from various sources
Please click on the headline to read the entire story

Amazon cuts off Colo. affiliates because of tax

Chief-of-staff intrigue stirs up speculation

Quake exposes poor construction in Turkey

Thom Hartmann vs Wayne Root – Payday lenders – necessary evil or loan sharks? (video)

Creationist-Cum-McCarthy-Booster Incumbent Rejected By Texas Republicans

Biden holds talks on relaunch of Mideast peace process

Increasing Soda Consumption Fuels Rise in Diabetes, Heart Disease

Republicans scold Liz Cheney

Obama taps ex-intel officer for aviation security

‘God Hates Fags’ case gets Supreme Court review

By Linda Feldmann
The Christian Science Monitor

Heather Gass always felt she had to suppress her conservative views, living as she did in the liberal San Francisco Bay area. A year ago that all changed.

CNBC financial reporter Rick Santelli had just blasted the Obama administration’s plan to help homeowners facing foreclosure, and called for a “tea party” protest in Chicago. The idea caught fire around the country, and soon Ms. Gass, a 40-something real estate agent, was organizing weekly street-corner demonstrations in her hometown of Orinda, Calif.

Her focus was fiscal discipline, aimed not just at the $75 billion mortgage bailout but also the administration’s $787 billion stimulus package and President Obama’s budget. She remembers her first signs well: “Stop printing money” and “China owns us.” By Congress’s summer recess, when opposition to Mr. Obama’s healthcare plan burst forth, she had 100 people protesting on street corners, she says.

Fast-forward to February 2010. Gass is still out there every Friday, her 6-year-old son in tow. Political operatives are calling her up for advice. Her roster of influential tea party activists – “Heather’s list,” as local politicos call it – is creating buzz. (more)

BY FRAN SPIELMAN
The Chicago Sun-Times

Mayor Daley today unveiled his annual package of gun control legislation and denied he’s “swimming upstream” at a time when the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to overturn Chicago’s handgun ban.

Most of the ideas are re-treads, but there are a few new wrinkles. They include a proposal to make it a mandatory Class 1 felony to “knowingly sell or transfer a gun to a known gang member.”

Daley also wants to strengthen penalties for unlawful use of a weapon so those caught carrying loaded weapons are no longer, as he put it, “let off scot-free.”

Yet another mayoral proposal would require semi-automatic pistols manufactured or delivered for sale in Illinois to be capable of “micro-stamping.” The technology helps law enforcement link spent ammunition with the gun used to fire it. (more)

by Danial Tencer
The Raw Story

Two Americans claim they were tortured by US officials after making bribery allegations

A federal judge in Chicago ruled on Friday that a lawsuit against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, brought by two Americans who had worked for an Iraqi contractor, can be allowed to proceed.

In his ruling (PDF), US District Judge Wayne R. Andersen said the plaintiffs had provided enough concrete evidence of torture to allow the suit to go forward. The judge dismissed Rumsfeld’s arguments that his position near the top of the executive branch immunized him from lawsuits involving the authorization of torture, the Associated Press reported.

According to court documents, Nathan Ertel and Donald Vance went to Iraq in 2005 to work for an Iraqi contractor, Shield Group Security. Once there, they say they witnessed SGS employees handing money over to “Iraqi sheikhs.” After they notified two FBI agents in Baghdad and one in Chicago of what they say, they say their employer cut off their access pass to Baghdad’s Green Zone and were stuck in the city’s dangerous “Red Zone.” (more)

By Grant Lawrence
AlterNet.org

“Today is a big day in America. Only 36,000 people lost their jobs today, which is really good,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid gleefully proclaims on the Senate floor.

Harry Reid is not really happy with the loss of 36,000 jobs. He is just happy if the American people are silly enough to accept this as really good news.

Come on folks. Is it really good news to keep losing tens of thousands of jobs each month (the number is likely higher then whatever they are telling us).

So here is what the good consumers of America are supposed to believe. People keep losing tens of thousands of jobs but miraculously the unemployment rate trickles down a bit each month. (more)

by Maya Schenwar
truthout.org

Monday evening, after a rousing speech in Philadelphia pushing for health reform passage, President Obama will celebrate International Women’s Day with a White House reception honoring women around the world for their achievements.

This recognition is important. However, International Women’s Day – the brainchild of a group of predominantly socialist women with revolutionary dreams of equality and basic human rights for all – presents an opportunity for a little more expansive thinking on the part of the Obama administration.

One item that’s ripe for rethinking, ASAP: the gender discrimination that is burning a hole through the Senate health reform bill that’s headed for a House vote next week.

Though the Senate bill lacks the Stupak stamp of shame, it certainly doesn’t come up short in the department of reactionary anti-choice provisions. Currently, the vast majority of private health plans cover abortion procedures. The Senate plan endorsed by President Obama would severely complicate payments for abortion-inclusive plans, requiring individuals covered by those plans to write two separate checks – one to cover abortion procedures and one for all other coverage. Insurers then must deposit abortion payments and everything-else payments into two separate accounts. (more)

by Vyan
Daily Kos
h/t John

Half-Term Governor Sarah Palin, who once stated that Universal Health Care would lead to “Socialism” with Sean Hannity…

Hannity, who bragged that he was interviewing her near his New York home, asked Palin about the country’s debt and Obama’s federal programs, prompting Palin to outline her fears.

“Our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize, certainly that is so far from what the founders of our country had in mind for us.”

Hannity interrupted her: “Socialism?”

To which Palin responded: “Well, that’s where we are headed.”

…has today admitted that she and her family used to use – the Canadian Health Care System.

PALIN: We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn’t that ironic?

“Ironic” isn’t exactly the word I’d use for it.

by Mahmut Bozarslan
AFP

OKCULAR, Turkey (AFP) – A powerful pre-dawn earthquake buried sleeping villagers in remote eastern Turkey Monday, claiming at least 51 lives and leaving dozens injured, officials said.

Measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale, the tremor struck at 4:32 am (0232 GMT), razing mud-brick houses in five mountainous villages in a mainly Kurdish area and killing whole families in their beds.

The epicenter of the shallow quake was near the town of Karakocan in Elazig province, the Kandilli observatory in Istanbul said.

“It started shaking — first slowly and then violently. I was terrified and began crying. The cupboard fell over and then the television set exploded,” said Zeynep Yuksel, a teenager in Okcular, the worst-hit village.

Civil and military rescue teams rushed to the region but search operations were called off after about eight hours. (more)

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Aid arrives after Turkey quake (video)

By A.B. Stoddard
The Hill

Perhaps it was a powerful quake that shook the earth from its axis, causing a Republican to turn an objection into a filibuster and an apocalyptic event in the U.S. Senate, but for diminished Democrats, Sen. Jim Bunning’s (R-Ky.) temper tantrum was nothing short of divine intervention.

With a hot-pink face and much grumbling, Bunning put a theatrical end to his one-man showdown in the Senate last Tuesday only after his hold on a 30-day extension of unemployment assistance caused the disruption of jobless benefits and healthcare coverage for millions of Americans and furloughs for 2,000 federal workers. Democrats feigned relief, after secretly hoping the filibuster would last through at least another round of Sunday talk shows.

There was bipartisan agreement that Bunning, whose mental stability has been questioned as far back as 2004, chose a strange bill to blow up over, since extending unemployment benefits is perhaps the only thing left the two parties agree on. Though Republicans paid lip service to Bunning’s objections — the benefits measures aren’t paid for — they still sought distance from his angry confrontation. (more)

By Susie Madrak
Crooks and Liars

What a shame we didn’t get to vote here, huh? Yes, despite some heavy-duty pressure (and the implied threat of being blocked from membership in the European Union), the tiny country voted no to a crushing repayment plan for the British and Dutch debts incurred by a failed Icelandic bank. That plan would have required each Icelander to pay around $135 a month for eight years — about 25% of the average family’s salary:

REYKJAVIK, Iceland – Icelanders blew whistles and set off fireworks in the capital as referendum results Sunday showed they had resoundingly rejected a $5.3 billion plan to repay Britain and the Netherlands for debts spawned by the collapse of an Icelandic bank.

Voters in the tiny Atlantic island nation defied both their parliament and international pressure to display their anger at how their nation was being treated.

(more)

By Faisal Aziz
Reuters

KARACHI (Reuters) – Pakistani security agents denied on Monday that an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason had been arrested, saying there had been confusion over the identity of a detained suspect.

Some Pakistani officials had said on Sunday that Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. bounty on his head, had been arrested on the outskirts of the city of Karachi.

But a senior government official and two security agents said on Monday the suspected al Qaeda operative picked up in Karachi was not Gadahn.

“Our initial impression was that the guy was Adam Gadahn but that information now looks incorrect,” said one security official, who declined to be identified. The arrested man was believed to be an American who goes by the alias Abu Yahya, the officials said. Gadahn is known to have used a similar alias. (more)

RELATED:
Dozen dead in Lahore bombing (video)
Sky’s the limit for Pakistan women fighter pilots (video)

By Angie Drobnic Holan
Politifact.com

Two of the most quotable members of Congress appeared together on CNN’s Larry King Live, debating health care reform.

Rep. Alan Grayson, (D-FL), and Michele Bachmann, (R-MN), were notably civil, though their debate only lasted about five minutes.

Perhaps King will have them back for a longer segment next time to mix it up even more.

We fact-checked two of their pithier comments.

Bachmann criticized Democratic plans for health care reform because they don’t reduce costs enough. “President Obama’s bill won’t bring down the costs (of health care) for average Americans — or really for very few Americans, if any,” she said. We rated that False. (more)

by Ed Pilkington
The Guardian <—Home Page

Ted Kennedy, Jaqueline Kennedy & Bobby Kennedy at the President's funeral procession

A young mother, writing shortly after the assassination of John F Kennedy on 22 November 1963, encapsulated the mood of millions. “Surely this generation,” she wrote, “has a deep scar on our hearts which we will carry to our graves.”

The comment was buried for almost a half century in a largely unexamined and previously unpublished collection of letters stored at Kennedy’s presidential library in Boston.

They were part of a massive outpouring of grief across America and around the world, expressed in more than 1m letters of condolence to the dead president’s widow, Jacqueline Kennedy.

About 250 of the letters have now resurfaced to public view in the form of an edited book compiled by a history professor at New Hampshire University.

Ellen Fitzpatrick had been researching another book on the Kennedy legacy. “I wanted to get back to that moment in the early 1960s when John F Kennedy had really energised the American people,” she said. (more)

Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A new poll on Monday found signs of trouble ahead for President Barack Obama and his Democrats on national security issues such as the handling of terrorism suspects.

The poll was conducted jointly by Democratic Corps, a Democratic organization, and Third Way, a progressive non-profit organization. It was done mainly to gauge voters’ views on Democrats’ handling of national security.

The poll also found weaknesses for the Democrats on other issues ahead of November elections, in which they hope to defend their strong majorities in Congress.

The poll found 60 percent of Americans believe the United States is on the wrong track. It also found that people rated Democrats at about the same level as Republicans, in what amounted to an erosion of the advantage Democrats have held. (more)

by Aminu Abubakar
AFP

JOS, Nigeria (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon appealed Monday for “maximum restraint” amid revulsion at the slaughter of more than 500 Christians in Nigeria, as survivors told how the killers chopped down their victims.

Funerals took place for victims of the three-hour orgy of violence on Sunday in three Christian villages close to the northern city of Jos, blamed on members of the mainly Muslim Fulani ethnic group.

While troops were deployed to the villages to prevent new attacks, security forces detained 95 suspects but faced bitter criticism over how the killers were able to go on the rampage at a time when a curfew was meant to be in force.

Media reported that Muslim residents of the villages in Plateau state had been warned by phone text message, two days prior to the attack, so they could make good their escape before the exit points were sealed off. (more)

By Max Bergmann
Think Progress.org

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s foreign policy mythology book tour continued on Fox News Sunday this morning. Romney started his interview saying that President Obama had engaged in an “apology tour.” This has been a standard conservative talking point in response to the massive positive shift in global attitudes toward America, as a result of President Obama’s diplomatic outreach.

However, Romney went further asserting that Obama’s words gave “support” to those saying the 9/11 attacks were a fabrication:

ROMNEY: It also adds fuel to the fire of those who are apart of the blame America crowd. I saw even Ahmadinejad is even saying 911 is a fabrication. These sorts of voices should not receive any kind of support from the words of the President of United States.

(more + video)

By Dave Lefcourt
OpEdNews.com

We’re supposed to be a nation guided by the rule of law. You’d never know it considering some of the latest “political negotiations” that have been bandied about regarding the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the self admitted mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

As we know, Attorney General Eric Holder’s initial decision to try Mohammad (and his accused co-conspirators) in federal court in Manhattan was scuttled after it came under withering attack by Republicans (who wanted them tried in military tribunals). New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, originally in favor of the trial being held in the city also back pedaled when the costs of the trial and the security issues raised a furor particularly from Democratic leaders in the city fearing the Manhattan trial could attract another attack.

Of late there have been reports (leaks?) of Obama officials meeting with Senator Lindsay Graham, (R-S.C.)(himself a blistering critic of civilian court trials of the 9/11 plotters) hoping to garner his support for closing the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention facility if Obama accepts Graham’s idea of holding and trying “future” suspects within a “new legal framework,” (this is apparently the Faustian “grand bargain” Obama officials have been considering, but officially denied, (according to “unnamed sources”). Funny how this writer thought we had an existing “legal framework” embodied in the Constitution of the United States! (more)

By Andrew McLemore
The Raw Story

“I don’t care who you are, … this is funny.”

Thus began an e-mail that Walt Baker, CEO of the Tennessee Hospitality Association, sent to to a few friends, the president of the Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, and several members of the press.

It continues by comparing First Lady Michelle Obama to Tarzan’s chimpanzee sidekick Cheeta. Also in the email are two photos at the bottom — one of Obama with an awkward pursing of her lips and another of a chimp.

Unsurprisingly, Baker has already begun apologizing for the outrage created by the e-mail.

“I am sorry for my actions. I am sorry for the offensive contents of the email,” Baker said. “I can only hope those that know me can find it in their hearts to forgive me.” (more)

Common Dreams.org

WASHINGTON – US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is concerned about possible misconduct in Afghanistan by the private security firm formerly known as Blackwater and has promised to review the issue, the Pentagon said.

Gates made the pledge to lawmakers after receiving a letter from Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who urged the defense secretary to reconsider awarding a possible one billion dollar contract to the firm, now known as Xe, due to allegations of wrongdoing.

“He is looking into it and he takes it seriously,” press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters Friday.

Gates has told the senator that “he shares his (Levin’s) concerns,” Morrell said.

The letter dated February 25 and released publicly on Thursday notes that the Defense Department is reportedly preparing to give a contract to Xe for “highly sensitive work” to train Afghan national police, despite its controversial record in Iraq and amid fresh allegations of misconduct. (more)

By Liz Sly and Caesar Ahmed
The Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Basra, Iraq – With an air of practiced efficiency, Iraqis strolled down the potholed, trash-strewn streets of this oil-rich city to vote Sunday.

Far from the explosions that marred voting in Baghdad, the mood in Iraq’s second largest city was much like the day’s weather: bright and full of sunshine.

In the country’s fifth exercise in democracy since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, turnout here was pegged at a respectable 60%.

“I’ve got a good feeling that the coming years are going to bring us prosperity and a good life,” said Bushra Younes, 33, after casting her ballot and dipping her finger in the ink that has become a symbol of Iraq’s fledgling democracy. (more)